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June 2nd 2022 – Shame On Thurles Municipal District Councillors.

**Empty flower beds and empty dirty flower containers**, **Thurles June 1st, 2022**

Today is June 2nd, 2022, and as yet not one flower container or flower bed has been planted this year by Thurles Municipal District Council staff.

Perhaps one of our local councillors might like to communicate to the public on why this has been allowed to happen.

Before the introduction of Property Tax all of our flower containers and hanging baskets were planted. Today, no public hanging basket exists and expensive flower containers remain filthy and empty of plants, except for what seeded itself over last year.

**Thurles Railway Bridge, 1st June, 2022.**

Yes, we have some large new pink flower containers on Liberty Square filled with “Box Hedging” and lavender-blue flowered “Catmint”, but these containers also are being neglected, with much evidence of “Dock” plants and “Yellow Rocket Cress”, same never ever intended for planting.

Thankfully, Thurles Shopping Centre and Lidl Supermarket have privately set the example, with both premises shaming Thurles Municipal District Council officials and our local elected councillors.

**River Suir Thurles yesterday, June 1st, 2022.**

Between poor street surfaces, a river that currently looks like an open sewer and street lighting burning 24 hours each day; 4 questions:
(1) Why do we need a tourist office?
(2) Why do we continue to pay Property Tax?
(3) Why do we continue to pay the salaries of failed administrators?
(4) Why are Thurles residents accepting poor standards of administration in complete silence?

Review Of Civil Legal Aid Scheme To Be Undertaken.

First review in the 43 year history of the Scheme.
Review Group to be chaired by retired Chief Justice.
Significant consultation to be undertaken as part of the review.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee, T.D., has updated Government this week on her plans to shortly commence a review of the Civil Legal Aid Scheme, as committed to in her Justice Plan, 2022.

Announcing the review, Minister McEntee said: “Since the Civil Legal Aid Scheme was first established 43 years ago, (1979), Irish society has changed and the demands on the Scheme have grown.

To provide maximum benefit to the people it was first established to serve, within the finite resources available to fund legal aid, I believe that a robust, comprehensive review of the Scheme as committed to in Justice Plan 2022 is an important step.

The review will allow for an assessment of how well access to justice is facilitated by our Civil Legal Aid Scheme, particularly for those on low incomes. The Review Group will make recommendations for its future, including in relation to eligibility”.

The Review Group will be Chaired by retired Chief Justice, Frank Clarke, with membership drawn from those who work with marginalised groups, legal practitioners, academics, Department officials and representatives from the Legal Aid Board, which administers the current Scheme.

Named Membership of the Review Group will include:
Mr. Thomas O’Mahony – Legal Aid Board nominee.
Ms. Sara Phelan SC – Bar of Ireland nominee.
Ms. Áine Hynes – Law Society nominee.
Mr. Bernard Joyce – Director of the Irish Traveller Movement.
Mr. Liam Coen – Department of Justice nominee.
Professor Niamh Hourigan – Sociologist and VP of Academic Affairs – Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Mr. Tom O’Malley – Senior Lecturer in Law, NUI Galway.
Professor Frances Ruane – Economist and former Director of the ESRI.
Ms. Eilis Barry – Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC).
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform nominee – name TBC.

The Minister also highlighted how people will be able to have their say on this important issue; stating: “As part of the review process, I intend that there will be significant consultation to ensure that the insights of a range of stakeholders regarding the operation of the scheme – and how best to support those of limited means with legal needs – will inform the work of the Review Group.

Capturing the views of those who have unmet legal needs will be an important part of the Group’s consultation and engagement. One of the areas which will be considered in the review is eligibility for civil legal aid.

Ultimately the review should map out a future for the Civil Legal Aid Scheme; one which will provide for a flexible service that has, as far as possible, the capacity and resources to respond to the priority legal assistance needs of those of modest means.”

I will be launching a public consultation in the coming weeks and I encourage as many people as possible to participate and to have their say on this important matter”.

The Review Group is expected to commence its work in June 2022, for a period of 12 months. It will make periodic reports to Minister McEntee on the progress of its work, before submitting its final report once its work is fully completed.

The Review of the Civil Legal Aid Scheme is part of a broader civil justice reform programme the Minister is spearheading across her Justice Plan 2022, including the establishment of a dedicated family court structure; the finalisation of the first national strategy on family justice; an independently chaired Judicial Planning Working Group, which is examining the number and type of judges needed over the next five years to ensure access to justice; and the Implementation Plan on Civil Justice Efficiencies and Reform Measures, which the Minister published last week.

EPA Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections Highlight Need For Urgent Implementation Of Climate Plans.

EPA Projections data indicate that:

Total greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to have increased by 6% in 2021.
Planned policies and measures, if fully implemented, could deliver up to 28% (4% per annum) emissions reduction up to 2030.
Ireland can comply with its 2030 EU emissions reduction target only if all planned measures are implemented and delivered as planned.
The data projects that all sectors need to do significantly more to meet their 2030 National emissions reduction targets.
The challenge is particularly evident in the agriculture sector. Methane emissions will need to reduce by up to 30% to meet the lower range of its 2021 Climate Action Plan target.
Urgent implementation of all climate plans and policies, plus further new measures, are needed for Ireland to meet the 51% emissions reduction target and put Ireland on track for climate neutrality by 2050.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its Greenhouse Gas emissions projections for the period 2021–2040.

The data shows that planned Climate policies and measures, if fully implemented, could deliver up to 28% (4 per cent per annum) emissions reduction up to 2030. As such Ireland could comply with its 2030 EU emissions reduction target only if all committed measures are implemented and delivered as planned and with full use of the permitted flexibilities.
Urgent implementation of all climate plans and polices, plus further new measures, are needed for Ireland to meet the 51% emissions reduction target and put Ireland on track for climate neutrality by 2050.

Speaking today at the EPA’s Climate Change Conference in Croke Park, Ms Laura Burke, (Director General, EPA) said: “These projections show the scale of policy development and implementation needed to match the ambition of our Climate Act 2021 and Carbon Budget targets. There is a significant gap between the ambition in the Climate Act and the realisation of the necessary actions to deliver on that ambition”.
Ms Burke added:
“The data shows that a step up in both the implementation of actions already set out in plans and policies and the identification of new measures is needed. All sectors have work to do, in particular the Agriculture sector. As the largest contributor of National emissions, more clarity is needed on how and when it will implement actions to reduce methane within the ever-shortening timeframe to 2030”.

The projections indicate that we have returned to pre-pandemic levels of activity, particularly in the transport sector, with associated levels of emissions. This return is likely to be exacerbated by a return to higher levels of coal used in electricity generation to meet growing national energy demand and current geopolitical impacts on energy.
Total greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to have increased by 6% in 2021. It is projected that the impact of reduction measures will result in emissions decreasing from 2023 onwards. The impact of measures on a sectoral basis include:

Agriculture
Under the with existing measures scenario emissions are projected to increase by 1.9% over the 2020-2030 period. A methane emissions reduction of almost 30% is required to achieve a 22% reduction in Agriculture emissions compared to 2018, as committed to in the 2021 Climate Action Plan. The sector must clearly set out how this will be achieved to address uncertainty regarding its ability to deliver even the lower end of the range of its sectoral targets within the ever-shortening time-frame to 2030.

Transport
The end of COVID travel restrictions is projected to result in transport emissions increasing by 18-19 per cent from 2020 to 2022. Emissions from the sector are projected to reduce to 39 per cent below 2018 levels by 2030 if the additional measures set out in plans and policies are implemented. These include over 940,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030, increased biofuel blend rates and measures to support more sustainable transport.

Energy
Increased coal use from 2021, as a result of unavailability of sufficient gas-fired generation to meet growing energy demand, followed by changes in relative fuel price threatens to undo some of the good work done over recent years and negatively impact achievement of National targets, particularly for the first carbon budget period. Despite this, increased renewable energy generation, if delivered as planned, can reduce Energy Industry emissions by 10% per annum from 2021-30, achieving up to 78% renewable electricity generation by 2030.

Home Heating
Spending more time at home due to home/office hybrid working and the increasing cost of fossil fuels has highlighted a need for improvements in home heating efficiency and better insulation. Current implemented policies and measures can only deliver a 24% reduction in emissions from this sector by 2030. This highlights the need for implementation of the additional policies and measures such as those in the Climate Action Plan, which include the installation of 680,000 heat-pumps by 2030 as well as retrofitting 500,000 homes. These are projected to achieve a 41.5% reduction in residential emissions in 2030 compared to 2018.

Commenting, Mr Stephen Treacy, (Senior Manager, EPA) said: “The message from the authors of the recent IPCC report on climate mitigation was clear – it’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible. In Ireland, implementation of measures has consistently lagged far behind planning. It is important that all planned actions are implemented as soon as possible while, in parallel, identifying actions to address the remaining gap to meet carbon budget limits”.
See full detail on the Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections 2021 to 2040 HERE and EPA Greenhouse Gas web resource on the EPA website HERE.

Cabinet Approval To Draft Legislation On Data Retention To Protect National Security.

Irish Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee has today received the approval of the Cabinet to draft legislation to amend the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, to address the impact of recent judgments of the European Court of Justice.

The proposed legislation is without prejudice to the State’s current appeal to the Supreme Court of a High Court ruling relating to the Act and will have two main objectives.

Firstly, it will provide for amendments to the current rules on general and indiscriminate retention of data from telephony and internet communications for national security purposes.

Secondly, provision will be made for new access provisions including two new types of orders which will strengthen the capacity of An Garda Síochána to secure and access all forms of electronic data for the purpose of specific criminal investigations or proceedings.

“Preservation Orders” will require the preservation of specified electronic data in connection with specific persons, locations or other indicators (e.g. mobile phone numbers). A Preservation Order will not in itself require the granting of access to data.

“Production Orders” will require the gathering and submission of specified data in a person’s possession or control to An Garda Síochána, and may include data which may already be the subject of a Preservation Order.

The Minister noted that the possibility of deploying such measures has been acknowledged by the Court of Justice in its rulings on data issues.

The Minister intends to return to Government to seek approval for the General Scheme of a Bill in the coming weeks, once the scope of the legal changes required has been confirmed.

In light of the urgent need to provide clarity in this area, the Minister intends to pass this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas, by the summer.

The Minister intends to bring forward wider reforms in the area of data retention later this year, to ensure An Garda Síochána have a robust legal framework to fight crime in the modern era.

These measures meet commitments made by the Minister in her Justice Plan 2022.

Following the Cabinet meeting, Minister McEntee said:
“The Government’s decision today allows for work to go forward to reflect the impact of judgments of the European Court of Justice.
While I do not want to comment on the specifics of cases which are before the courts, I have been clear that I do not want a situation where An Garda Síochána have their hands tied behind their backs.

Access to telecommunications data has become ever more important for the detection, investigation and prosecution of crime and for safeguarding the security of the State.

An Garda Síochána do hugely important work to keep us all safe, to investigate criminals and to ensure justice is done. They must be fully equipped with strong laws and modern technology to fight crime and keep us safe. We need to acknowledge that Gardaí require access to data to do their jobs and keep us safe, and that there are occasions when the interests of public safety, fighting crime and national security must override the absolute right to privacy.

There should always be safeguards and protections when it comes to accessing data, but we must not allow the balance to shift too far away from keeping people safe and fighting crime.

I intend to bring a General Scheme to Government for approval in the coming weeks, after which I will announce further detail of the intended legislation”.

Death Of Bridie Brophy, Formerly Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

It was with a great sadness that we learned of the death today, Sunday 29th May 2022, of Mrs Bridget (Bridie) Brophy (née Kennedy), Knockalton, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary and formerly of Mountkinane, Borrisoleigh, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Pre-deceased by her parents Pat and Nonie Kennedy and her baby brother Christopher; Mrs Brophy passed away peacefully, surrounded by her loving family, while in the wonderful care of the staff at Milford Care Centre.

Her passing is most deeply regretted by her husband Mick, immediate family Jean and Michael, brothers and sisters John, Joan, Pat, Gerard and Mary, son-in-law Francis Bourke, daughter-in-law Evelyn, her adored grandchildren Elsie and Christopher, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended relatives, neighbours and friends.

Requiescat in Pace.

Funeral Arrangements.

The earthly remains of Mrs Brophy will repose on Tuesday evening, May 31st, at J.J. Ryan’s Funeral Home, Silver Street, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.
Her body will be received into the Church of St. Mary of the Rosary, No. 6 Church Road, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, to arrive on Wednesday, June 1st to further repose for requiem Mass Mass at 12:00 noon, followed by interment immediately afterwards in Lisboney Cemetery, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

For the many persons who would have liked to have attended the funeral service for Mrs Brophy, but due to distance or ill health are unable to do so, same can be viewed online HERE

[NB: Due to C-19 virus fears; those attending will continue to observe strict adherence to social distancing, face covering, with no hand shaking.]

The extended Brophy family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time and have made arrangements for those wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.

Note Please: Family flowers only. Donations in lieu, if desired, to Milford Care Centre.

Suaimhneas síoraí dá h-anam dílis.